Monday 19 September 2011

Continuing to explore tube grey in watercolour

Getting to know W&N neutral tint on Arches NOT 140lb

A very kind and generous friend, after seeing my last post, has sent me a tube of Winsor & Newton neutral tint to experiment with along with some different paper to test it out on. (Thank you so much!) You can see the first experiments, getting to know the new pigment above. A few of these will, I think, develop into paintings over time.

The repetition of painting variations of the same theme in very quick succession seems to work really well for me in generating ideas. The act of painting becomes much more intuitive and whilst the results of the sketches couldn't be considered finished pieces they do hold little gems that can be developed into further work. (I find mono printing is another lovely technique for this).


My conclusions so far;

* All the paints were much easier to lift out, either with a dry brush or tissue on Arches watercolour paper than the Khadi which is much more absorbent. I think this is due to the differences in the sizing and materials used to make the paper. The Khadi paper is much more fibrous and 'woolly' - characteristics that could be used to advantage with different techniques.

* W&N neutral tint hasn't granulated in any of my experiments, the Daler version did so easily with some very beautiful results as did their ivory black. This will be due to the different pigments used to make the colours. Using these colours in paintings I would consider all the characteristics, possibly using non-granulating W&N neutral tint for skies and Daler neutral tint for granulating textures in the sea.

* W&N neutral tint veers toward purple and the Daler version to a more pinky colour to my eye.

* I would describe ivory black as a warm, soft willow charcoal grey and lamp black as a harder compressed charcoal black. (- hope that makes sense...) I think I would gravitate toward the softness of ivory black for tonal sketching.




from left to right; W&N neutral tint, Daler neutral tint, Daler ivory black, Daler lamp black, Daler sepia W&N Payne's grey (In the test pieces above I painted around the moon rather than lifting the paint out.)

This little dalliance on the dark side has been interesting and is something I will continue to explore. However, with exhibitions fast approaching and deadlines all seeming to come together, as they do, experimenting like this will have to take a back seat for a little while. There will be more posts coming in the future though.

11 comments:

Bruce Sherman said...

Hello Seaside!... Lots of "possibilties emerging from these studies!

That's the true spirit of creation and invention.....trials!

Good luck with it! Very interesting post!

Good Painting... and Playing!
Warmest regards,
Bruce

Anonymous said...

Lisa, Testing out papers like this is so invaluable, isn’t it? Arches 1140lb (300gsm) can take quite bit of abuse, which is why I use it most of the time…. And does not need to be stretched even with repeated wettings……although it can differ from batches to batches a little.

As I have mentioned before I cut up not so hot paintings and use the back for little text experiments like this or as scrap. You can use both sides of Arches, although one side is slightly smoother than the other.

I love the fact that you have found out by doing these experiments that Neutral Tint would work great for a sky and your Daler Neutral for the sea.

Stuff like this can only be found out be doing, experimenting and experiencing! So, so glad you tried out Neutral Tint. Did you mask out the moons? Don’t think I could wipe out such a great shape!

Anonymous said...

Lisa, just wanted to add…you are very welcome to the paint and paper scraps!!!!
Maggie

Unknown said...

A very informative post and very inspirational too. Some of the tests are definite candidates for developing further into finished pieces :) Thanks for sharing Lisa.

RH Carpenter said...

These are really little gems of paintings and love the way you presented them on one sheet - you could even mat and frame them that way. Lovely work and thanks for sharing all the information you gleaned from these studies. And good luck on the upcoming shows!

loriann signori said...

Great explorations in materials and value! Thanks for sharing Lisa!

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

First off can I aplogise for not replying sooner. I'm really sorry I completely lost internet connection last week and it has taken an age to get it back.

Hi Bruce, I'm thinking through and playing with possibilities all the time.... sometimes it feels like too much fun to be 'work'.

Hello Maggie, I painted around the moon (some of them got smaller and smaller as I tried to get the shape right ;o) ) Thank you again for the paint and paper it's been so good to experiment with them.

Hi Michael, thank you. I'm glad that you have enjoyed reading.

Hello Rhoda, thank you :o)

Hey Loriann, thank you for stopping by.

Well I'm going to do a rush around blog hop now as it seems that everyones been really busy and there's lots of posts to catch up on. See you in a bit.

Jala Pfaff said...

Hi Lisa,
I like your little studies! I actually smiled because I did a moon the other day (will probably post pretty soon one of these days) too.

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Hi Jala, quick post it! I'd love to see. Thank you for popping over and good luck with your exhibition (not that you will need it the Untitled series is gorgeous)Thank you for commenting :o)

Zoe, ontheroad said...

Somehow I missed this follow up--terrific. Probably preoccupied here. :)

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Hi Zoe, thank you. Best wishes.